Noun

1 the act of expelling a person from their native
land; "men in exile dream of hope"; "his deportation to a penal
colony"; "the expatriation of wealthy farmers"; "the sentence was
one of transportation for life" [syn: exile, deportation, transportation]

2 migration from a place (especially migration
from your native country in order to settle in another) [syn:
emigration, out-migration]

English

Noun

This article is about foreign human residency. For the
Australian Indie Rock band, see Expatriate.

An
expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or
permanently residing
in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing
or legal residence. The word comes from the Latin ex (out of) and
patria (country, fatherland), and is sometimes misspelled (either
unintentionally or intentionally) as ex-patriot or short
ex-pat (because of its pronunciation).

Background

The term is often used in the context of
Westerners living in non-Western countries, although it is also
used to describe Westerners living in other Western countries, such
as Americans living in the United Kingdom, or Britons living in
Spain. It may also reasonably refer to Japanese living, for
example, in New York
City. The key determinant would seem to be
cultural/socioeconomic and causation.

In the 19th century, Americans, numbering perhaps
in the thousands, were drawn to Europe—especially to Munich and Paris—to
study the art of painting. Henry James was a famous expatriate
American writer from the 1870s, who adopted England as his
home.

A nickname in the UK for former expatriates who
have returned to Britain is the "When I"s, or "When we"s, as they
are accused of starting conversations by saying "When I was in
Rhodesia"
or "When we were in Singapore".

Trends in expatriation

During the later half of the
20th
centuryexpatriation was dominated
by professionals sent by their employers to foreign subsidiaries or
headquarters. Starting at the end of the 20th centuryGlobalization
created a global market for skilled professionals and leveled the
income of skilled professionals relative to cost of living while
the income differences of the unskilled remained large. Cost of
intercontinental travel had become sufficiently low, such that an
employers not finding the skill in a local market could effectively
turn to recruitment on a global scale. This has created a different
type of expatriate where Commuter and
short-term assignments are becoming the norm, and are gradually
replacing the traditional long term. Private motivation is becoming
more relevant than company assignment. Families might often stay
behind when work opportunities amount to months instead of years.
The cultural impact of this trend is more significant. Traditional
corporate expatriates did not integrate and commonly only
associated with the elite of the country they were living in.
Modern expatriates form a global middle class with shared work
experiences in multi-national corporation and working and living
the global financial and economical centers. Integration is
incomplete but strong cultural influences are transmitted. Middle
class expatriates contain many re-migrants from emigration
movements one or two generations earlier. In Dubai the population
is predominantly expatriates, from countries such as India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines with only 3% of the
population made up of Western expatriates.

Dealing with expatriates

In dealing with expatriates, an international
company reckons the
value of them and has experienced staff to deal with them.
Furthermore, a company often has a company wide policy and coaching
system and includes the spouses at an earlier stage in the decision
making process by giving them an official say in this. Not many
companies provide any compensation for loss of income of spouses.
They often do provide benefits and assistance. The level of
support differs, ranging
from offering a job-hunting course for spouses at the new location
to full service partner support structures, run by volunteering
spouses supported by the organization. An example of an expatriate
led project can be found in the Gracia
Arts Project of Barcelona.